Employers have to put vaccinated and vulnerable workers first

When it comes to vaccination, persuasion is clearly better than compulsion.

There are real-world examples of where it has proved to be highly effective too. I’ve talked to Unison about the efforts it has been making. Peer to peer persuasion has worked well in the NHS.

A recent BBC Panorama programme assembled a panel of people nervous about Covid vaccines and then exposed them to a widely circulated piece of disinformation – a video peppered with toxic lies. It was frighteningly effective with some. However, the programme then put them in front of an epidemiologist who gave them the truth. The scenes of previously doubtful panel members getting their shots as the programme ended were heartening.

The CBI’s latest statement on the subject also recognises the virtues of persuasion.

“The bar for compulsory vaccination is high and there will be few industries where this approach would be appropriate, however in some sectors it could prove necessary,” the employers organisation said.

“Wherever possible, businesses will be approaching questions like this trying to bring their staff with them. Vaccines are essential to economic recovery so firms are committed to doing everything they can to inform and engage their employees on the benefits of the vaccine”

The trouble with persuasion is that it will only get you so far. This presents employers with a dilemma: Are you willing to put your business at risk by allowing people who won’t be persuaded into the office? Are you willing to put their colleagues, to whom you have a duty of care, at risk too?

Increasingly their answer is that they’re not.

In the US, tech giants such as Google and Facebook are making it mandatory for workers who need to be in the office to be double jabbed, with exceptions (rightly) made for the medically exempt. Netflix too, on the sets of its programmes. President Joe Biden has decided that federal employees will be asked to attest to their vaccination status. Those who do not will be required to wear a mask, socially distance from colleagues and visitors, face twice weekly testing and be subject to restrictions on official travel.

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre archly compared the mandate to a company-wide policy recently implemented at, drum roll please, Fox News, some of whose hosts have been justifiably criticised for their negative on air statements with regard to the vaccine.

The NFL too has imposed restrictions on players who refuse to get jabbed.

In the UK, transport secretary Grant Shapps, said it would “good idea” for companies here to insist their staff are fully vaccinated before returning to the office. It is set to become a legal requirement for those working in the care sector because of the risk to residents. Publisher Bloomsbury has said vaccines will be compulsory for UK staff returning to its offices when they reopen. Ditto Bank of America.

Unions have some misgivings when it comes to this sort of compulsion, which is understandable.

But there is also a dilemma for them: how do you balance the interests of members who refuse to take a safe, freely available vaccine that protects against and helps reduce the spread of a killer disease with those whose lives, or whose families’ lives, could be put at risk through associating with them in the workplace?

Whose rights come first? If you advocate for workplace safety – as unions rightly do – then they have to lean towards their vulnerable and vaccinated staff and their families.

There is a legal dimension to this. Ryan Bradshaw, an employment lawyer with Leigh Day, told me that an immunocompromised employee could be put at a disadvantage were they required to work alongside an unvaccinated colleague.

Under the 2010 Equalities Act that could be discriminatory requiring the employer to make a reasonable adjustment to address it. There are also, clearly, health and safety implications.

Yes, persuasion is better and it is at the heart of the CBI’s statement and the unions’ approach too.

But ultimately there is a bottom line and the safety of the vulnerable and the friends, colleagues and relatives, of vaccinated staff must be put above those who won’t be persuaded and needlessly put their colleagues health, jobs and their employers’ businesses at risk as a result.